The individual time trial of stage 21, contested on a 29.3 kilometer route from Monza to Milan, was won by Jos Van Emden (Team Lotto NL-Jumbo). Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) and Manuel Quinziato (BMC Racing Team) finished second and third.

Stage winner Jos van Emden was both happy and surprised with his great result. "It's unbelievable. I'm so happy and so emotional. I've come second in time trials too many times. This is the greatness of cycling. Finally I've won and it's a big one. There are two really happy people here from the Netherlands. Yesterday I sent a message to (fellow Dutchman) Tom Dumoulin with the Maglia Rosa and he replied he hoped we'd both be celebrating today and we are."

"It's really crazy. I've won the Giro. It was such a nerve-wrecking day for me. I needed to stay calm and I almost couldn't," Giro winner Dumoulin told Roadcycling.com shortly after being celebrated on the podium in Milan.

"Luckily I had good legs and I just went for it. I didn't want to know the time splits. My sports director was only supposed to tell me when to stop taking risks and he did it at half way already. When I crossed the line he told me I had won the Giro general classification, but when I looked at the television screen I saw I only had three seconds lead and I panicked a bit. I was angry, but eventually I pulled it off and I'm super happy,” Dumoulin added.

"I’m not the first time trial rider who can do well in the mountains. Miguel Indurain is five steps ahead of me. There are guys like Bradley Wiggins, but I don’t want to compare myself to anyone. It’s just an amazing day. I’m really happy. I was never a bad climber. I always had that in me. I never trained in the hills really when I was young. There are no long climbs around Maastricht. But now I do more training camps in the mountains - in Tenerife and Sierra Nevada. I’ve also made a switch mentally. I'm capable of suffering more now than I was before. I didn’t lose much weight, I’m maybe two kilos lighter than I was three years ago."

Ivan Basso's future Giro general classification favorite Davide Formolo managed to secure a top 10 spot in the final general classification following three weeks of intensive and focused racing by the Italian rider and his Cannondale-Drapac team.

Formolo was well-positioned in almost every stage of this year's Giro thanks to a job well done by its experienced team leaders who - with the exception of a few crosswind situations in week one - made sure Formolo was positioned at the front at crucial moments and shielded further back in the peloton when he needed to conserve energy.

Formolo's end result was only damaged by disappointing time trial performances that have become a trademark of the Cannondale-Drapac team in recent years.

"Finally it’s over," Formolo said with a laugh when he returned to the team hotel following today’s time trial. "It was the goal to be in the top ten, and in end we got it. It was a long Giro with a very hard last week. We had some fun, some efforts, some pain. It’s all normal. I’m very happy."

"I know it’s overused, but Davide is the most dedicated and hardworking guy I’ve seen in cycling," Team Cannondale-Drapac owner and CEO Jonathan Vaughters told Roadcycling.com. "He is an on the bike early and often and lights out at 9pm kind of guy. He wanted this top 10 so bad. So bad. So, I’m very happy he could get it."

Formolo finished third in the Best Young Rider classification that was won by Team Quickstep Floors' Bob Jungels.

The King of the Mountains classification was surprisingly won by Mikel Landa Meana. Landa was given the opportunity to fight for stage victories in mountainous stages after his Sky Team lost its general classification favorite Geraint Thomas, who would likely have won the Giro if he hadn't tragically had to abandon the Giro d'Italia following a serious crash that occurred in stage 9.

The crash happened when Wilco Kelderman's (Team Sunweb) amateurish peloton position caused him to collide with an ill-positioned Police motorcycle vehicle. Curiously the Sunweb team would end up winning the general classification.